Israel

Mother Who Rescued Sons Recalls Rocket Attack from Gaza That Destroyed Home

A woman who saved her sons by dragging them out of bed Wednesday morning before a rocket launched from Gaza hit their home in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, recalled that as soon as she and the boys reached the shelter, an explosion rocked the house, The Times of Israel reported Thursday.

Miri Tamano, a divorced mother of three, awakened after hearing a siren at about 3:30 in the morning warning of an incoming rocket and woke her three sons, ages 8, 9, and 12, brought them into the home’s bomb shelter and shut the blast door. Just after they closed the door, the rocket, carrying 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosives, hit. The four were rattled by the close call, but otherwise unharmed.

The explosion destroyed much of the second floor, where the boys’ bedrooms were located.

“We didn’t even manage to sit down and there was a mighty blast,” Tamano told an Israeli news show, Hadashot.

In recalling the incident, Tamano said that she wasn’t a heroine, “I think we are committed to protect. But I think that perhaps I was to be a messenger from God, to give a message, first of all to everyone listen to the instructions from the Home Front Command. If I hadn’t closed the door we all would have been hurt.”

The Times noted that Tamano’s quick actions have been “credited with saving their lives, and likely keeping hostilities in the restive region from snowballing out of hand.”

Tamano described her family’s escape from harm as a “miracle” that “the whole of Israel saw.”

A neighbor of Tamano’s, Segev Naveh, told The Israel Project that he had not heard the siren and said of the rocket, “if it was falling on my house I would be dead for sure.”

Because it was a victim of a terror attack, the Tamano family is eligible for benefits from the state. The Israel Tax Authority sent assessors to the house to evaluate the damage to the house and sent the family an initial check for NIS 10,000 ($2,700), to help pay for a hotel until a new residence could be found. Though the government will pay to rebuild the home, it will take months to complete the work.

After the attack, Tamano’s sister appealed for funds for the family, which is lacking basic necessities.

When Hapoel Beersheba, the local soccer team, heard that one of the boys lost his wallet with the team’s logo on it in the attack, it provided uniforms for the three boys and made arrangments for them to meet the team.